Category Archives: Fish

I love it when I find my favourite foods on sale. The other day I went to my local grocer to pick up a few items and noticed that asparagus was on sale – so I picked some up. I didn’t know initially what I would do with it, but, it’s asparagus – there are so many options :). So, while asparagus was chilling out in my shopping cart, I walked by the fresh seafood section, and to my delight – Atlantic salmon was also on sale! Great! My asparagus now had a perfect companion and they were both going to be my dinner on a fall Wednesday afternoon :). I would say, a perfect way to break up the work week.

My favourite thing about fresh salmon is how moist and flaky it is. It already has an abundance of flavours so I thought I would keep the dish as simple as possible. I put a little bit of olive oil on both sides of the fish just so it doesn’t stick to the pan. Then some salt, pepper and herbes de Provence. I wanted to sear the salmon to get the nice brown colour, so I pre-heated the pan before salmon went in. Salmon doesn’t take a long time to cook – maybe 3-5 minutes per side. The asparagus also doesn’t take very long – 7-10 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your asparagus. The bottom part of asparagus is too chewy so it should be discarded. To know how much to discard off the bottom, try to snap one asparagus and wherever it snaps is how much should be discarded. You can use this test asparagus to cut the rest.

It took longer for me to get the lighting right to photograph this dish than it did to prepare it, so I had to wait longer than I wanted to to eat it. But, the end result, both the photos and the food were so worth the wait :).

I didn’t use a recipe for this dish, as I just tried to put together flavours that I thought worked well. It is very easy and quick to prepare. If it’s possible, use fresh salmon for this dish, because the frozen fillets just aren’t as flaky and moist. Make sure the pan is very hot before putting the salmon in. Season the salmon before with olive oil, salt and pepper. Sear the salmon for 3-5 minutes on each side and it’s done. For asparagus, discard the bottoms and cook with olive oil and butter for 7-10 minutes. You can test how well they’re done by tasting one – it should be crispy and easy to bite off – if it starts looking too dry and is stringy to the bite, it’s overdone. Season with salt and pepper and enjoy.